I was at UF for undergrad.. I used to spend a lot of time at the Reitz Union playing Marvel vs Capcom 2. Definitely a social game because it is a player vs player thing. We'd have some ridiculous battles, it was good times. Didn't really wreck havoc on my life or anything (played mainly in between classes), but it did cause me to have and extra daily expense. I think when you're actually playing against someone who is standing right next to you its not as bad because that is real social interaction. In fact, in college, games made up a significant percentage of social interaction. Goldeneye, Bust-a-Move 2, Puzzle Fighter, fighting games, racing games, etc.. That's the kinda stuff I like, the "quick fix" games that you can kick someone's ass in while at the same time having a coupla beers with them:)
Yeah I kinda agree. I started out with DOS then moved on to UNIX (shell only). I was actually upset when things started moving towards GUI-only (Windows started taking over). I dunno, its hard to say though. They may be used to GUI and leaving 'em at a shell prompt may not be the best thing. Teach them both of course. Maybe the shell should come first, a ground up approach; show them how to get from the shell to the GUI and all the steps involved in configuration etc. They are probably going to need a browser to look up information at some point, so GUI may be inevitable.
I went to CompUSA and got everything I set out to get:
ATI AIW 7500 for $100 after rebates 150 CD-R's free after rebates Asylum Geforce2 for $30 after rebates
I bought this Imation mini CD-R burner/player ($30), but returned it the next day because it seemed kinda useless, it couldn't do CD-RW. I also picked up the rebate forms the next day because their website was soooo slow I couldn't get anything off of it. Also picked up a can of compressed air free after rebates the next day.
Personally I love "Black Friday" I got even better deals last year. CompUSA isn't too crowded and a lot of their sales you can go later in the week and they'll still have it. I also went to Circuit City, Staples, and Best Buy but was way too late for any of the free stuff and didn't buy anything at those stores.
I don't particularly like online shopping all that much. I hate having to wait for my stuff to arrive. If I can get it local, I'd rather do that. With online shopping sometimes you have to wait longer because they didn't bother to tell you they don't have it in stock and other times you get the product (say a hard drive) and you find they did an absolute horrible job of packaging it and the thing must've bounced around the entire time. And then shipping costs on top of it all. Not to mention if you're not home you have to go drive somewhere to pick it up anyways (or risk having it stolen).
YOU-GET-WHAT-YOU-PAY-FOR! (and you certainly don't get an AthlonXP 1700+ with a quality MoBo/power Supply for $250)
Well, sure, but these days you don't need a lot, so why should you pay a lot? I think with my prices (before sales taxes) I could build a decent system that won't "crash and burn" like you said, you just have to know how to shop to get quality parts. I wouldn't buy that Envision monitor, though, but the guy who claimed he built a $250 system built it for someone else who's probably not going to be upset about low resolutions/refresh rates. I'll admit, the monitor is not a good place to skimp.
The average user, even a power user, could get by on the given system. Sure, you have to get parts that are old, but that doesn't mean they're not quality. Add $30 for an AthlonXP 1700+ ($57), but do you really need one? You CAN get a quality a mobo for $50, it'll be a few generations old and will use PC133 RAM, but that is a plus because DDR isn't totally worth it. For $60, you can get a good power supply, though maybe the case won't be all that, but as long as the air flow is good it's not a big deal. Add $20 if you want a solid case/psu like the Antec SX830.
I've bought plenty of RAM that was free after rebates and they have done well. Things get even better when you accumulate enough crap that you can build solid systems from the parts you already own with only minimal purchasing.
I'm not going argue against Mac's or anything, because I simply don't know much about them. But I do know that x86 PC's are cheap and fun:)
$50 Motherboard with onboard video/sound/ethernet $25 Duron 1GHz $10 Heatsink/Fan $60 Case + Power Supply $10 - 128 MB PC133 RAM $5 - Keyboard $5 - Mouse $50 Hard drive (probably ~20GB) $10 CD-ROM $89 Envision 17" Monitor (after rebate)
Total: $314
Ok, so we went a little over budget here, but take out the monitor and its $225. Also, if you already have a hard drive laying around you can use that or maybe buy a smaller used one real cheap.
Give BSD a try. It is nice. I have been playing with FreeBSD for the last coupla days (haven't done so in a while). I find it a lot simpler than Linux, easier to configure and find things. It has a much more UNIX-like feel to it. Reminds me of SunOS/Solaris a lot which is good because SunOS was the first *NIX operating system I learned. Sure, its not as bleeding-edge as Linux, and hardware and software support is limited (though not terribly bad). But if you want a nice simple fast *NIX box to play with, this is a good way to go.
Yes, Mozilla is very very nice. Modern theme works for me, though I don't know why Classic theme is default, it is the worst theme. There is also a tiny theme that is nice, it gives you a bit more browsing space.
I am waiting impatiently for 1.2 to be released (1.2b is too buggy, downloading didn't work correct). Type-ahead find is simply the coolest feature ever. Being a keyboard control freak, this will be good for me.
Think about it: Say you're going through a set of pages that require you to click a "Next" link to advance through the pages. You can click using the mouse, but it probably won't be in the same place everytime, and may go out of reach when you scroll through the page. With type-ahead find, you just start typing N... E... X..., until the Next link has been selected and hit enter. You may even make a macro that does this for you, say make the left and right arrow do Previous and Next respectively. Personally, I'm excited about these possibilities.
A little warning from someone who's been down this road: Carpel tunnel syndrome, thoracic outlet syndrome, and other supposed repetitive strain injuries are all psychosomatic (the physical symptoms are real, but are caused by the mind). When I was 22, I experienced this myself as TOS that I thought I had for over a year, but it turned out to be something called TMS, and once I realized this it went away. To learn more, Google search for: sarno tms. You don't have to have pain, and even more important, you don't have to fear screwing up your hands either (which was my original mistake). Argue this all you want, but I've already been there.
I used computers since I was 8 (I'm 24 now). I am very happy that I did so because it made my career. In any case, I am very glad my parents provided me with access to computers. I pursued learning computers by my own choice, but they gave me the opportunity. So if a child exhibits interest in computers, by all means give him/her the opportunity, but don't force anything. A little guidance can help, but again don't force anything, only if the child is interested. Do the same with any other interests, be it sports or music. I am still upset that my parents didn't buy me a drum kit when I was 9, despite my constant begging. I would've been a pro by now:) Ah well, I can understand them not wanting to put up with the noise.
That's exactly the drawback to entities like the EFF, though; the ways in which one can get involved are usually limited to writing out a check
To support this point a little further, I like to quote Albert Einstein:
"I am absolutely convinced that no wealth in the world can help humanity forward, even in the hands of the most devoted worker in this cause. The example of great and pure characters is the only thing that can produce fine ideas and noble deeds. Money only appeals to selfishness and always tempts its owners irresistibly to abuse it. Can anyone imagine Moses, Jesus, or Gandhi armed with the money-bags of Carnegie?"
I write at 32X using IDE drives on a ridiculously slow PC, while running other stuff in the background that uses the harddrive and maybe doing a little web browsing. Haven't burned a bad disk yet. My CD-Writer (Samsung) has an 8MB buffer, though.
Sounds like you got a bad drive, though. My old HP 2x writer started burning bad disks half the time before it finally died.
Actually, this looks like great set-top box material. It has a TV-tuner, Composite/S-video out, DVI out, is HDTV ready, etc. You could put it in a slim case and put it in the rack next to your audio/video components in your TV room. I'm going to consider this motherboard when I decide to build a PC for my TV (depending on what it costs).
I've been thinking of making some kinda "Tivo for radio" thing for a while now. There's been so many times when I wanted to hit rewind while listening; and there are a lot of programs that come on at odd hours for me. Then there's the convenience of loading some talk radio onto my MP3 player.
However, this particular device is rather costly. Anyone have a FM/AM PCI card? How is the software? Any problems with reception?
A real simple software solution would be to just run the radio into your Line In, and setup a timed recording. But of course that wouldn't be as convenient and configurable.
Quiet cooling is all it is. No need to overclock.. Hell, you can even underclock if you wanted to. But, try keeping one of the latest processors cool using air cooling when your ambient temperatures are 84F (~29C). Now try doing this same exact thing quietly.
They don't support it, but they don't disallow it either. This is from a Time Warner / Roadrunner cable service FAQ: LANs on Road Runner The standard Road Runner Residential Service is designed for single-computer configurations. However, you are able to connect multiple computers to a single cable modem with the use of a hub. Such local area network (LAN) configurations are your responsibility to install and support. Note: LAN configurations and hubs could decrease the performance of your Road Runner service, especially if multiple computers/users are using the service simultaneously.
However, here's an interesting bit from their policy list:
You must adopt adequate security measures to prevent or minimize unauthorized use of your account, including proper levels of security on mail, web and news servers maintained at your location.
I would imagine running a public WLAN would violate this last policy.
I know you were just using them as an example, but I don't think you'll see Rush out of job any time soon (unless they retire), even if their albums don't sell. They have been around for very long and have put out many albums (21 total I think, including live albums); and they have a huge following. And if they were to tour (like they did for Counterparts), I think many of their shows would sell out. Touring is where bands make most of their bucks, not CD sales.
I sure would buy a ticket, Rush rules. I own about 10 of their albums. I bought most of them used, though, so I guess they aren't directly profiting from me. ah well...
Yeah, I've also got a P2-266 and it decodes DivX flawlessly (in my experience). I have a K6-2+ 450@550 which is my main machine, but it occasionally has trouble with DivX. A lot of times the audio will not sync up correctly with the video.
Strange, because the K6-2+ should have more processing power than the P2. I guess its the multimedia extensions that are making the difference. Though it could be a software issue (I had such issues before, for example with the Nimo codec pack).
Look at mozilla. Its a great project but its not as nice as IE by a long shot. Anyone using 1.1a in Linux will know that [e.g. me! while at the same time 0.9.9 works fine... ???]
I know this is subjective, but I disagree and think IE isn't as nice as Mozilla. Mozilla 1.0 is smooth, much nicer than IE. I didn't think I'd care for tabbed browsing, pop-up disabling, image blocking, and themes but I really have grown used to these things. The only complaint I have is I haven't figured out a way to sort my bookmarks. I've used 1.1alpha and it is buggy, but it is an alpha release and shouldn't be compared.
Now the security of Mozilla is something that we don't know too much about (or do we?). We all know about IE's security...
I have a theory: I think open source software is found to be more insecure in the early stages of its development, whereas closed source software is found to be more insecure later in its development. For example, Linux was considered a very insecure OS about 6 years ago, you didn't run it if you cared even a little about security (FreeBSD seemed to have been the choice for secure x86 *NIX). At that time, we didn't hear too much about Windows NT's security (or maybe I wasn't paying attention).
Things have changed, now people call Linux a secure OS because it has already exposed many of its vulnerabilities, but Windows is known as the insecure OS because its flaws are poping up all over the place. I'm not saying either are more secure (because you can only make an educated guess), but the open source model allows for discovery of vulnerabilities a little quicker and easier than closed source.
Building your own can be less expensive when you are using parts you already have. But even then, there can be hidden costs that you didn't anticipate.
I had good experiences when I bought from Micron and had a 5-year warranty. Having an extended warranty can be very helpful and would be the main reason I'd suggest buying pre-built. Though, I prefer to build my own. It may cost more, but you get what you pay for. Some of the prebuilt systems I've owned, I actually ended up spending more to replace all the low-quality components.
I ordered a hard drive from Tiger Direct one time. They shipped it in a box with no packing material -- no styrofoam, not even some balled up newspaper. The box was much bigger than the hard drive and had plenty of empty space. The hard drive probably spent the whole trip sliding around inside that box. Fortunately it works fine, though. I wouldn't order a HD from them again. I do like the catalogs they send me every few weeks, though. There are some things I might buy from them, but nothing that can be damaged easilly while being shipped.
I agree. I bought a Audigy myself (knowing that it was only 16-bit, too). And after doing a direct comparison with my Turtle Beach Montego II, I actually prefered the sound of my older Turtle Beach card (this is subjective I guess). Though I did like some of the features of the Audigy like the crossover on the subwoofer out which sounded amazing. It did crash my Win2k box a few times (even with the latest drivers).
I ended up returning it and buying the Santa Cruz for $60 and I've been totally happy with it. I don't really use 3-D audio so all that matters to me is 2-channel playback and recording, and the Santa Cruz does that very well.
I kinda think this review didn't do an adequate job testing. They used MP3's for the playback, they should've listened to non-lossy audio as well to really see what the card could do. And maybe a wider range of music.
In other words not content for the product to be the best and win on its own merit you advise riggin the stats to thus inflate the results and give an incorrect picture and invalidate all statistics?
Nah, I was just showing that web stats can be easilly rigged and that they can't be trusted. Just something I did today to prove a point. I'm not advising anyone to do anything.
I think my point about the web proxy is pretty clear. It shows that all users are only one type of client. So if the web proxy shows IE, it doesn't matter if users use Mozilla.
Slashdot Mirror
I was at UF for undergrad.. I used to spend a lot of time at the Reitz Union playing Marvel vs Capcom 2. Definitely a social game because it is a player vs player thing. We'd have some ridiculous battles, it was good times. Didn't really wreck havoc on my life or anything (played mainly in between classes), but it did cause me to have and extra daily expense. I think when you're actually playing against someone who is standing right next to you its not as bad because that is real social interaction. In fact, in college, games made up a significant percentage of social interaction. Goldeneye, Bust-a-Move 2, Puzzle Fighter, fighting games, racing games, etc.. That's the kinda stuff I like, the "quick fix" games that you can kick someone's ass in while at the same time having a coupla beers with them :)
Yeah I kinda agree. I started out with DOS then moved on to UNIX (shell only). I was actually upset when things started moving towards GUI-only (Windows started taking over). I dunno, its hard to say though. They may be used to GUI and leaving 'em at a shell prompt may not be the best thing. Teach them both of course. Maybe the shell should come first, a ground up approach; show them how to get from the shell to the GUI and all the steps involved in configuration etc. They are probably going to need a browser to look up information at some point, so GUI may be inevitable.
I went to CompUSA and got everything I set out to get:
ATI AIW 7500 for $100 after rebates
150 CD-R's free after rebates
Asylum Geforce2 for $30 after rebates
I bought this Imation mini CD-R burner/player ($30), but returned it the next day because it seemed kinda useless, it couldn't do CD-RW. I also picked up the rebate forms the next day because their website was soooo slow I couldn't get anything off of it. Also picked up a can of compressed air free after rebates the next day.
Personally I love "Black Friday" I got even better deals last year. CompUSA isn't too crowded and a lot of their sales you can go later in the week and they'll still have it. I also went to Circuit City, Staples, and Best Buy but was way too late for any of the free stuff and didn't buy anything at those stores.
I don't particularly like online shopping all that much. I hate having to wait for my stuff to arrive. If I can get it local, I'd rather do that. With online shopping sometimes you have to wait longer because they didn't bother to tell you they don't have it in stock and other times you get the product (say a hard drive) and you find they did an absolute horrible job of packaging it and the thing must've bounced around the entire time. And then shipping costs on top of it all. Not to mention if you're not home you have to go drive somewhere to pick it up anyways (or risk having it stolen).
YOU-GET-WHAT-YOU-PAY-FOR!
:)
(and you certainly don't get an AthlonXP 1700+ with a quality MoBo/power Supply for $250)
Well, sure, but these days you don't need a lot, so why should you pay a lot? I think with my prices (before sales taxes) I could build a decent system that won't "crash and burn" like you said, you just have to know how to shop to get quality parts. I wouldn't buy that Envision monitor, though, but the guy who claimed he built a $250 system built it for someone else who's probably not going to be upset about low resolutions/refresh rates. I'll admit, the monitor is not a good place to skimp.
The average user, even a power user, could get by on the given system. Sure, you have to get parts that are old, but that doesn't mean they're not quality. Add $30 for an AthlonXP 1700+ ($57), but do you really need one? You CAN get a quality a mobo for $50, it'll be a few generations old and will use PC133 RAM, but that is a plus because DDR isn't totally worth it. For $60, you can get a good power supply, though maybe the case won't be all that, but as long as the air flow is good it's not a big deal. Add $20 if you want a solid case/psu like the Antec SX830.
I've bought plenty of RAM that was free after rebates and they have done well. Things get even better when you accumulate enough crap that you can build solid systems from the parts you already own with only minimal purchasing.
I'm not going argue against Mac's or anything, because I simply don't know much about them. But I do know that x86 PC's are cheap and fun
Well think about, it can be done:
$50 Motherboard with onboard video/sound/ethernet
$25 Duron 1GHz
$10 Heatsink/Fan
$60 Case + Power Supply
$10 - 128 MB PC133 RAM
$5 - Keyboard
$5 - Mouse
$50 Hard drive (probably ~20GB)
$10 CD-ROM
$89 Envision 17" Monitor (after rebate)
Total: $314
Ok, so we went a little over budget here, but take out the monitor and its $225. Also, if you already have a hard drive laying around you can use that or maybe buy a smaller used one real cheap.
Ok, where are the 3-D Glasses? :)
Give BSD a try. It is nice. I have been playing with FreeBSD for the last coupla days (haven't done so in a while). I find it a lot simpler than Linux, easier to configure and find things. It has a much more UNIX-like feel to it. Reminds me of SunOS/Solaris a lot which is good because SunOS was the first *NIX operating system I learned. Sure, its not as bleeding-edge as Linux, and hardware and software support is limited (though not terribly bad). But if you want a nice simple fast *NIX box to play with, this is a good way to go.
Yes, Mozilla is very very nice. Modern theme works for me, though I don't know why Classic theme is default, it is the worst theme. There is also a tiny theme that is nice, it gives you a bit more browsing space.
I am waiting impatiently for 1.2 to be released (1.2b is too buggy, downloading didn't work correct). Type-ahead find is simply the coolest feature ever. Being a keyboard control freak, this will be good for me.
Think about it: Say you're going through a set of pages that require you to click a "Next" link to advance through the pages. You can click using the mouse, but it probably won't be in the same place everytime, and may go out of reach when you scroll through the page. With type-ahead find, you just start typing N... E... X..., until the Next link has been selected and hit enter. You may even make a macro that does this for you, say make the left and right arrow do Previous and Next respectively. Personally, I'm excited about these possibilities.
A little warning from someone who's been down this road: Carpel tunnel syndrome, thoracic outlet syndrome, and other supposed repetitive strain injuries are all psychosomatic (the physical symptoms are real, but are caused by the mind). When I was 22, I experienced this myself as TOS that I thought I had for over a year, but it turned out to be something called TMS, and once I realized this it went away. To learn more, Google search for: sarno tms. You don't have to have pain, and even more important, you don't have to fear screwing up your hands either (which was my original mistake). Argue this all you want, but I've already been there.
:) Ah well, I can understand them not wanting to put up with the noise.
I used computers since I was 8 (I'm 24 now). I am very happy that I did so because it made my career. In any case, I am very glad my parents provided me with access to computers. I pursued learning computers by my own choice, but they gave me the opportunity. So if a child exhibits interest in computers, by all means give him/her the opportunity, but don't force anything. A little guidance can help, but again don't force anything, only if the child is interested. Do the same with any other interests, be it sports or music. I am still upset that my parents didn't buy me a drum kit when I was 9, despite my constant begging. I would've been a pro by now
That's exactly the drawback to entities like the EFF, though; the ways in which one can get involved are usually limited to writing out a check
To support this point a little further, I like to quote Albert Einstein:
"I am absolutely convinced that no wealth in the world can help humanity forward, even in the hands of the most devoted worker in this cause. The example of great and pure characters is the only thing that can produce fine ideas and noble deeds. Money only appeals to selfishness and always tempts its owners irresistibly to abuse it. Can anyone imagine Moses, Jesus, or Gandhi armed with the money-bags of Carnegie?"
Though throwing EFF a buck isn't a bad thing...
I write at 32X using IDE drives on a ridiculously slow PC, while running other stuff in the background that uses the harddrive and maybe doing a little web browsing. Haven't burned a bad disk yet. My CD-Writer (Samsung) has an 8MB buffer, though.
Sounds like you got a bad drive, though. My old HP 2x writer started burning bad disks half the time before it finally died.
Actually, this looks like great set-top box material. It has a TV-tuner, Composite/S-video out, DVI out, is HDTV ready, etc. You could put it in a slim case and put it in the rack next to your audio/video components in your TV room. I'm going to consider this motherboard when I decide to build a PC for my TV (depending on what it costs).
All my mom needs is a web browser and Yahoo Messenger, so I don't think she'd have much trouble running Linux if configured properly.
I've been thinking of making some kinda "Tivo for radio" thing for a while now. There's been so many times when I wanted to hit rewind while listening; and there are a lot of programs that come on at odd hours for me. Then there's the convenience of loading some talk radio onto my MP3 player.
However, this particular device is rather costly. Anyone have a FM/AM PCI card? How is the software? Any problems with reception?
A real simple software solution would be to just run the radio into your Line In, and setup a timed recording. But of course that wouldn't be as convenient and configurable.
Quiet cooling is all it is. No need to overclock.. Hell, you can even underclock if you wanted to. But, try keeping one of the latest processors cool using air cooling when your ambient temperatures are 84F (~29C). Now try doing this same exact thing quietly.
Sorry, but the Windows Media Player patch does not uninstall.
They don't support it, but they don't disallow it either. This is from a Time Warner / Roadrunner cable service FAQ:
LANs on Road Runner
The standard Road Runner Residential Service is designed for single-computer configurations. However, you are able to connect multiple computers to a single cable modem with the use of a hub. Such local area network (LAN) configurations are your responsibility to install and support.
Note: LAN configurations and hubs could decrease the performance of your Road Runner service, especially if multiple computers/users are using the service simultaneously.
However, here's an interesting bit from their policy list:
You must adopt adequate security measures to prevent or minimize unauthorized use of your account, including proper levels of security on mail, web and news servers maintained at your location.
I would imagine running a public WLAN would violate this last policy.
Here is a page that has direct links to the patches.
Windows Update did not correctly detect that I'm using 6.4, and wanted to patch 7.1 instead.
I know you were just using them as an example, but I don't think you'll see Rush out of job any time soon (unless they retire), even if their albums don't sell. They have been around for very long and have put out many albums (21 total I think, including live albums); and they have a huge following. And if they were to tour (like they did for Counterparts), I think many of their shows would sell out. Touring is where bands make most of their bucks, not CD sales.
I sure would buy a ticket, Rush rules. I own about 10 of their albums. I bought most of them used, though, so I guess they aren't directly profiting from me. ah well...
Yeah, I've also got a P2-266 and it decodes DivX flawlessly (in my experience). I have a K6-2+ 450@550 which is my main machine, but it occasionally has trouble with DivX. A lot of times the audio will not sync up correctly with the video.
Strange, because the K6-2+ should have more processing power than the P2. I guess its the multimedia extensions that are making the difference. Though it could be a software issue (I had such issues before, for example with the Nimo codec pack).
Look at mozilla. Its a great project but its not as nice as IE by a long shot. Anyone using 1.1a in Linux will know that [e.g. me! while at the same time 0.9.9 works fine... ???]
I know this is subjective, but I disagree and think IE isn't as nice as Mozilla. Mozilla 1.0 is smooth, much nicer than IE. I didn't think I'd care for tabbed browsing, pop-up disabling, image blocking, and themes but I really have grown used to these things. The only complaint I have is I haven't figured out a way to sort my bookmarks. I've used 1.1alpha and it is buggy, but it is an alpha release and shouldn't be compared.
Now the security of Mozilla is something that we don't know too much about (or do we?). We all know about IE's security...
I have a theory: I think open source software is found to be more insecure in the early stages of its development, whereas closed source software is found to be more insecure later in its development. For example, Linux was considered a very insecure OS about 6 years ago, you didn't run it if you cared even a little about security (FreeBSD seemed to have been the choice for secure x86 *NIX). At that time, we didn't hear too much about Windows NT's security (or maybe I wasn't paying attention).
Things have changed, now people call Linux a secure OS because it has already exposed many of its vulnerabilities, but Windows is known as the insecure OS because its flaws are poping up all over the place. I'm not saying either are more secure (because you can only make an educated guess), but the open source model allows for discovery of vulnerabilities a little quicker and easier than closed source.
Building your own can be less expensive when you are using parts you already have. But even then, there can be hidden costs that you didn't anticipate.
I had good experiences when I bought from Micron and had a 5-year warranty. Having an extended warranty can be very helpful and would be the main reason I'd suggest buying pre-built. Though, I prefer to build my own. It may cost more, but you get what you pay for. Some of the prebuilt systems I've owned, I actually ended up spending more to replace all the low-quality components.
I ordered a hard drive from Tiger Direct one time. They shipped it in a box with no packing material -- no styrofoam, not even some balled up newspaper. The box was much bigger than the hard drive and had plenty of empty space. The hard drive probably spent the whole trip sliding around inside that box. Fortunately it works fine, though. I wouldn't order a HD from them again. I do like the catalogs they send me every few weeks, though. There are some things I might buy from them, but nothing that can be damaged easilly while being shipped.
I agree. I bought a Audigy myself (knowing that it was only 16-bit, too). And after doing a direct comparison with my Turtle Beach Montego II, I actually prefered the sound of my older Turtle Beach card (this is subjective I guess). Though I did like some of the features of the Audigy like the crossover on the subwoofer out which sounded amazing. It did crash my Win2k box a few times (even with the latest drivers).
I ended up returning it and buying the Santa Cruz for $60 and I've been totally happy with it. I don't really use 3-D audio so all that matters to me is 2-channel playback and recording, and the Santa Cruz does that very well.
I kinda think this review didn't do an adequate job testing. They used MP3's for the playback, they should've listened to non-lossy audio as well to really see what the card could do. And maybe a wider range of music.
In other words not content for the product to be the best and win on its own merit you advise riggin the stats to thus inflate the results and give an incorrect picture and invalidate all statistics?
Nah, I was just showing that web stats can be easilly rigged and that they can't be trusted. Just something I did today to prove a point. I'm not advising anyone to do anything.
I think my point about the web proxy is pretty clear. It shows that all users are only one type of client. So if the web proxy shows IE, it doesn't matter if users use Mozilla.
Why do I bother explaining myself to AC's...